Kosher Grocery: Three businessmen are leading an effort to save Crown Market

It looks like the folks who wrung their hands and said they should have done more shopping at The Crown Market will actually get the chance.

Last week the owners of the well-known West Hartford kosher food store, a focal point of the Greater Hartford Jewish community since it opened in Hartford in 1939, announced the store was closing due to increased competition, higher costs and a very bad winter.

Supporters of the Crown, Jews and non-Jews, were surprised and saddened and took to social media to look for ways to save the market. Nearly 1,700 people signed an online petition. This week, three prominent businessmen — Henry M. Zachs, the founder and CEO of Message Center Management; Alan Lazowski, chief executive of LAZ Parking; and Brian Newman, a partner at CohnReznick — announced plans to save the Crown.

The group plans to assemble investors and buy the store, renegotiate the lease and continue the business. Mr. Zachs, a noted philanthropist who helped revive the Mandel Jewish Community Center, the Hillel at the University of Connecticut and other institutions, said lease negotiations are underway and that more than 20 investors have signed on with, hopefully, more to come. "The community really, really came together," said Mr. Zachs.

So while the deal is not yet final, it looks very promising. It would be, as they say in hockey and historic preservation, a great save — reviving a business doesn't happen very often. If all goes well, the shelves will be restocked in time for Passover, which begins April 14.

The lesson, as many now realize, is that if you like a small business — market, hardware store, bookstore, wine shop — support it. Shop there. And at the Crown, don't just buy the tuna salad.